Iran looms large as an important policy question in the Middle East these days. But it barely received mention on the campaign trail in the United States, where American voters are fixated on issues closer to home: the economy, abortion, immigration, and the health of America's democratic system are all front and centre. This doesn't mean that Iran is unimportant when it comes to US national security policy—it just these issues aren’t very likely to determine who will win the presidential race in November.
Predicting what a future US president will do in office based on what they say on the campaign trail is a challenge— circumstances often shape policy, and things look a lot different from the Oval Office than they do from the podium at a campaign rally aimed at winning over swing voters. Nevertheless, both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have track records on Iran based on their time in office—Trump was US president from 2017-2021, and Harris is the sitting Vice President in office since 2021.
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